


So Keep Pleasant Things

by Estirose



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-04 22:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1086292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sather decides to start living again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Keep Pleasant Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nausicaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa/gifts).



> Sather and Grunther are two NPCs that appear in the 2nd edition module "Return to the Tomb of Horrors". There's a bit of text in the module that states that if the PCs drive Sather to tears, Grunther will remain with her to help her get herself back together, instead of joining the party on its way to the Tomb. I rather liked Sather and Grunther, and I thought it would be nice if Grunther got a chance to help Sather put herself back together.

"Nice lady?"

Sather hiccuped, blearily trying to focus on the man before her. After that awful, awful party of adventurers had left, she'd just folded, unwilling to do anything but sob.

"Nice lady? Grunther has water." Grunther brandished a decanter of water in front of her, and she sipped it greedily, coughing and choking for a moment as she realized that she'd drunk it far too fast.

"I'm all right," she said, without Grunther's prompting. "I'll be... all right."

She wasn't all right. She couldn't drag herself out of the sitting position, and it wasn't because of her leg. She just... if she died sitting there, she really didn't care.

"You remember, Grunther, how that thing ate your arm? We should have gone then, before we lost the rest of the party."

"Grunther's all right. Nice lady is not all right." Grunther picked her up, taking her to her bed. "They talked about the bad place."

"I know. I don't ever want to think about that place, ever again." She shook her head. In her mind's eye was that first terrible corridor, full of traps. She could remember scraping away the plaster on one wall, finding the door behind it, and being the foolish woman she was, letting them go on.

Of course, nothing they'd encountered was as diabolic as Acererak's tomb. She almost hoped that they'd die in there, or at least suffer what she and Grunther had suffered.

But no, even if she no longer followed Pelor, she shouldn't wish that on anybody.

Grunther tucked her in. "I'm here, nice lady, if nice lady needs anything."

She just thought how nice it was to rest there, out of danger, away from people who thought that knowing things was far more important than anybody's health. "I just want to be alone. To die alone."

"Nice woman shouldn't die, not because of evil adventurers." Sather closed her eyes, wishing Grunther would understand. But Grunther was never the brightest of people. Hacking at things was his specialty, not thinking, or he wouldn't have stuck his hand in that green thing and ultimately lost it.

Would it have been better if they were all dead? Except for Grunther, of course. He was sweet, if stupid. She should have been dead, but she kept living somehow, even when she didn't want to. Maybe she had been through so much danger that somehow, she just couldn't die there.

Maybe she should live, for Grunther's sake, though it would be a while, she knew, before she had the will to get out of bed.

"No." She opened her eyes, looked at Grunther. "Not because of evil adventurers."

Because she was a survivor. She'd lived through that tomb of horrors and come back to tell the tale. And even if life had been awful to her, she would come back, and come back, and come back, even if she hated it.

After all, without her, without Grunther, who would remember Falon?

Nobody.

"Help me up," she said. "Grunther. We have work to do."

"Yes, nice lady," Grunther said, and Sather allowed herself a tiny smile, the first she'd been able to make in years. She didn't want to go on, but she would, and that was the end of that.


End file.
